House G.O.P. Rushes to Get A Rights Bill Before Rivals

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: June 15, 2001

WASHINGTON, June 14—
House Republican leaders rushed today to write a bill defining patients' rights, and said they hoped to push it through the House before the Senate completed work on a rival bill favored by Democrats, who want to set much more stringent standards for health insurance plans.

John P. Feehery, a spokesman for Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, said House Republicans would introduce their bill within a few days and wanted to begin debate on the floor later this month.

Representative Ernie Fletcher, a Kentucky Republican working on the bill, said the Republicans' goal was to vote on the legislation before House members went home for the weeklong Fourth of July recess, scheduled to begin on June 30.

Mr. Feehery said the House Republican bill would be acceptable to President Bush. By contrast, Mr. Bush said this week that he ''can't live with the bill'' favored by most Senate Democrats, and he vowed on Wednesday that ''it won't become law.''

Mr. Bush says the Democratic bill would encourage lawsuits and drive up the cost of health insurance. Democrats say the lawsuits are a last resort to enforce patients' rights.

Bush administration officials met today with senators of both parties to hash out their differences. But they made no progress on the most contentious issue: whether to make it easier for patients to sue health maintenance organizations for the improper denial of care.

The meeting was a prelude to debate on patients' rights legislation, which is expected to begin on the Senate floor next week.

In the presidential campaign, Mr. Bush said he supported legislation to protect patients, and he endorsed a limited right for patients to sue H.M.O.'s and recover damages. Democrats, now in control of the Senate, and a few Republicans, like Senator John McCain of Arizona, want to give patients a broader set of rights, including a much more extensive right to sue.

''We have not agreed on the issue of liability,'' Mr. McCain said after today's meeting at the White House.

Mr. McCain, the chief sponsor of the bill favored by most Democrats, said the White House was unwilling to compromise on the issue of punitive damages. Mr. Bush does not want to allow any punitive damages. Mr. McCain and the Democrats would set a $5 million limit on such damages in federal court.

Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, said today's meeting had not narrowed the differences on lawsuits. Rather, he said, the meeting clarified the differences.

Mr. Thompson said the Bush administration and senators of both parties had agreed on 85 percent to 90 percent of the legislation, including provisions to guarantee patients access to emergency care, medical specialists and an independent medical review when claims are denied.

Mr. Feehery said Speaker Hastert had been trying to enact patients' rights legislation for many years.

But Representative Pete Stark of California, the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, questioned the Republicans' motives.

''The Republicans are up to mischief,'' Mr. Stark said in an interview. ''Their plan is very simple. If they can put a bill through the House that is quite different from whatever is passed by the Senate, we will go to conference. And the House conferees will be able to stall.''

Asked about Mr. Stark's analysis, Representative Fletcher said: ''I don't think that's anywhere close to accurate. He is paranoid. This is a vote for real, not just to stake out a political position.''

In the last Congress, the Senate passed a Republican bill to define patients' rights, and the House passed a bipartisan bill. The legislation died in conference.

Mr. Feehery said Mr. Hastert had instructed three senior Republicans to draft a bill. The three are Bill Thomas of California, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee; John A. Boehner of Ohio, chairman of the Committee on Education and the Work Force; and Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Photo: Senators gathering yesterday after meeting on a patients' rights bill. From left are John Edwards of North Carolina, John B. Breaux of Louisiana, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, and John McCain of Arizona. (Susana Rabb for The New York Times)